"In 1933, the retired president of the Geographical Society looks out of the window of his villa in Rome onto a garden wall. The images of both his own life and those of the famous Italian African explorer Vittorio Bottego (1860 to 1897) pass by as if on a canvas.
Bottego discovered the largely unknown Abyssinia and the Juba and Omo rivers, on which gold, marble and ivory were transported, on several daring expeditions. His motto was that of all conquerors: "Destroy or be destroyed."
In the melancholy tone of the observer and with biting irony, Calligarich, who was born in Asmara himself, tells of the frighteningly topical greed for wealth and the danger of power." (Publisher)